Does the Westminster Confession of Faith always agree with scripture?
Below we find in Sections I. and II. of chapter 19, text stating the law given at Mount Sinai was the same covenant of works given to Adam.
It claims it is commonly called "moral" law.
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Westminster Confession of Faith
Chapter XIX
Of the Law of God
I.
God gave to Adam a law, as a covenant of works, by which He bound him and all his posterity, to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience, promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it.
II.
This law, after his fall, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness; and, as such, was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai, in ten commandments, and written in two tables: the first four command- ments containing our duty towards God; and the other six, our duty to man.
III. Besides
this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel, as a church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits; and partly, holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All which ceremonial laws are now abrogated, under the New Testament.
IV. To them also, as a body politic, He gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the State of that people; not obliging under any now, further than the general equity thereof may require.
V. The moral law does forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that, not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it. Neither does Christ, in the Gospel, any way dissolve, but much strengthen this obligation.
VI. Although true believers be not under the law, as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified, or condemned; yet is it of great use to them, as well as to others; in that, as a rule of life informing them of the will of God, and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly; discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts and lives; so as, examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin, together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and the perfection of His obedience. It is likewise of use to the regenerate, to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin: and the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve; and what afflictions, in this life, they may expect for them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law. The promises of it, in like manner, show them God's approbation of obedience, and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof: although not as due to them by the law as a covenant of works. So as, a man's doing good, and refraining from evil, because the law encourages to the one and deters from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law: and not under grace.
VII. Neither are the fore mentioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the Gospel, but do sweetly comply with it; the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely, and cheerfully, which the will of God, revealed in the law, requires to be done.
(emphasis by
bold text is mine.)
from
www.reformed.org/documents
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The claim above that the "moral law" was given to Adam before the fall does not match up with the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:16-29.
Paul said the law was "added" 430 years "after" the promise made to Abraham "until" the seed (Christ) could come to whom the promise was made.
This is confirmed by Exodus 34:28, which says the 10 commandments are the Sinai Covenant, and Deuteronomy 5:1-3, which reveals the Sinai Covenant was not given earlier.
The term "the moral law" is found nowhere in scripture.
Paul never divides the Sinai Covenant into three parts in an attempt to hang onto the 10 commandments.
In 2 Corinthians 3:6-8 the Apostle Paul contrasts "the ministry of death engraved on stones" to the New Covenant of the Spirit.
In Galatians 4:24-31 the Apostle Paul compels the Galatian believers to "cast out" the Sinai Covenant of "bondage".
The writer of Hebrews contrasts the Sinai Covenant (We are not come to the mountain that burns with fire.) to the New Covenant in Hebrews 12:18-24.
There are two different sets of commandments in John 15:10.
We find below that the law of Christ is a higher standard than the Sinai Covenant, not for our salvation, but for our conduct.
Mat 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
Mat 5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
The New Covenant is not a "new administration" of the Old Covenant, as often claimed by those promoting Reformed Covenant Theology.
Nowhere in the New Testament are Christians compelled to keep a Sabbath day. This is confirmed by Paul in Colossians 2:16-17.
Paul said the Sabbath day was a "shadow" of Christ.
Christ is our Sabbath rest every day of the week for those in the New Covenant.
Heb 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
Below we find that the New Covenant is not like the Sinai Covenant.
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Heb 8:6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Heb 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
Heb 8:9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
Heb 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Heb 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Heb 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
(The New Covenant has made the Old Covenant "obsolete".)
1Jn 2:27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
Those in the New Covenant are not taught by man-made confessions, like the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Those in the New Covenant receive the seal of the "holy Spirit" upon coming to faith when hearing the word, as found in the verse below.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
How do we recognize the Judaisers?
Act 15:24 Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
Those promoting Reformed Covenant Theology have failed to "cast out" the now "obsolete" Sinai Covenant of "bondage". (Galatians 4:24-31)
They are clinging to "the mountain that burns with fire", which is found in Hebrews 12:18.
And therefore, they have failed to fully embrace the New Covenant and the law of Christ. (1 John 3:22-24)
This is one of the reasons modern church buildings contain many lost people, who think they have become a part of the Church through a ceremony involving water.
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